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A Columbus, Ohio, teacher has suggested in a letter to the editor that teachers who have a concealed carry license be permitted to carry their firearms in the classroom. He proposes the idea to help make “school buildings safer.” With so many mass shootings nationwide, it’s easy to understand why the idea is raised, but the idea necessarily leads to the question, how effective will teachers be in a gunfight?

To get a sense for the blur of thoughts and distorted reality that take place when bullets start flying, read “Your brain under fire,” published on Jan. 16, 2013, in Time magazine. http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/16/your-brain-in-a-shootout-guns-fear-and-flawed-instincts  This is a story about how Jim Glennon, a former lieutenant and academy instructor in the Chicago police department, reacted in a gunfight. It’s eye-opening.

Glennon’s comment about teachers carrying guns without first undergoing dynamic, simulation training: “Cops aren’t trained well enough, so what do you think they’re going to do with the teachers? It’s not enough to just carry a gun.”